Storytime is a choice-based interactive fiction system. It features a simple plain-text format for writing stories and has a slick browser-based interface for playing them out. Building more complex narratives is also supported through the use of conditions and actions.
Storytime is implemented in Haskell and currently the easiest way to install it is using Cabal packaging tool.
git clone https://bitbucket.org/Soft/storytime
cd storytime
cabal install --only-dependencies
cabal build
cabal install --userStorytime has a support for multiple different interfaces for viewing content. Currently, a web-based viewer and a simple terminal-based viewer are included.
storytime [-V|--validate] [-i|--interface INTERFACE] FILEFor example, the web-based viewer can be launched by simply running the command:
storytime adventure.storyRunning the command automatically opens the web browser pointing at the viewer
playing out story from file adventure.story.
The --validate switch instructs Storytime to perform some simple diagnostics
on the story file and exit.
Sections are the backbone of Storytime documents and every piece of fiction must have at least one of them. One can define a new section by starting the line with an asterisk and following it with section's name. Section names have to begin with a letter and can contain alphanumeric characters, hyphen (-) and forward slash (/).
* beginning
Once in a far away land...
[castle]: Explore the castle
[invest]: Become a fairly successful middle manager at a mid-sized investment bank
* castle
You gaze upon the steep walls of the fortress. Climbing them would certainly be
a hurdle.
* invest
On a whim, you decide to look for lucrative investment opportunities in the
derivatives market.
Links connect the sections together and make the story come to live. Links have to be listed after the content of a section. In the most basic form, a link consists of a target and a title.
It is sometimes useful to have conditional links between sections. Conditional
link is only visible if a specified condition is met. Conditions are simple
boolean expressions. Here are a few examples of valid conditions:
numberOfDragons > 900, a = b && b > 10, ~(a = 1) || (a = 1). One can
add a condition to a link by following the target with a bar (|) and the
condition. For example:
* example
[another | a > 5]: This link is only visible if 'a' is greater than five.
[another | ~(a > 5) ]: This link is only visible if 'a' is not greater than five.
* another
Hurrah!
Links can also modify variables. The modifications only take place if the link is followed. If the player can use the link multiple times (for example, if the sections form loops), the modifications are executed every time. One can add multiple actions to a single link by separating them with a comma, the actions will be executed from left to right.
* engaging-section
Loop!
[engaging-section | a < 9, +a]: This link leads to the same section and increments 'a' by one every time it is followed. The link will disappear after 'a' becomes greater than ten.
[end| a > 8]: Forward
* end
...that was quite enough
Actions can contain simple integer expressions. For example, the following are
all valid actions a = a + 10, +power, -enemies, price = (a * b + c) - d
Here's another example:
* first
Some text...
[second, rubber-chicken = 1, points = points + 50]: Take the rubber chicken
* second
Sections can also include conditional content. Example bellow demonstrates this:
* section
What a fate! To be lost in an infinite maze of cubicles.
${rubber-chicken>0: Luckily you have your trusted rubber chicken with
you.}${~(rubber-chicken>0): To make matters worse, you left your rubber chicken
at home.}
Sections can also have actions associated with them. The actions are executed every time player views the sections.
* example, +turn, price = price * 2
...
Storytime documents can start with a metadata block. How the metadata will be used depends on the selected viewer.
% title: A Witty Title
% author: John Doe
* first-section
...
The embedded scripting language can be used to do all kinds of things that might not be immediately useful for writing interactive fiction. For example, one might make a story that calculates the Fibonacci sequence:
* init, a = 1, b = 2, num = (a + b)
${a}, ${b}...
[fib]: Reticulate splines
* fib
${num}
[fib, a = b, b = num, num = (a + b)]: Fibonacci!
The examples folder in the repository contains few example stories.
Although Storytime files can be edited using any text editor, Storytime comes
with a dedicated major mode for Emacs. storytime-mode supports syntax
highlighting and provides a few useful key bindings for Storytime specific
functionality.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
C-c C-c |
Play through the current story |
C-c C-o |
Follow link |
C-c C-j |
Jump to header |
C-c C-s h |
Insert header |
C-c C-s l |
Insert link |
Storytime is still at the experimental stage of development and bugs are bound to occur from time to time. Bug reporst can be filled at the issue tracker hosted at BitBucket.
Storytime is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 3